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Quadram Researchers Working on COVID-19 Vaccine Join WHO Expert Groups

Quadram Researchers Working on COVID-19 Vaccine Join WHO Expert Groups

7 May 2020

Quadram Institute researchers who are working on a new drug delivery method for a COVID-19 vaccine have joined World Health Organization (WHO) expert advisory groups tackling the coronavirus.

Professor Simon Carding of the Quadram Institute and University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School has been asked to join WHO’s COVID-19 Expert Advisory Group on vaccine prioritisation and Dr Simon Funnell, of the Quadram Institute and Public Health England, is on the COVID-19 expert advisory group on animal models.

Prof Carding and his co-researchers from the University of Kent and the University of Liverpool are working on a new drug delivery method for COVID-19 vaccines. Professor Mark Smales (University of Kent) sits on WHO’s expert group for assays development for vaccines and Professor James Stewart (University of Liverpool) is on the expert group for animal models.

The three UK-based scientists are working on new approaches for vaccine delivery developed by Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB) based on engineering the natural ability of resident gut bacteria to generate nanoparticle sized Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs). An OMV-based COVID-19 vaccine has now also been included in the WHO landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines.

OMV-based vaccines present unique and significant advantages compared to other vaccines. Drug administration is easier and non-invasive, i.e. needle-free, via oral or nasal routes. The vaccine can be easily, rapidly and cost-efficiently adapted and re-formulated to potential virus mutations and different virus subtypes.